The Mech Touch

After a productive exchange session that was mostly dominated by talking about prime abilities, the expert pilots finally returned to their own haunts.

Only Patriarch Reginald Cross remained behind with Ves and Gloriana. The Cross Patriarch briefly spent a bit of time conveying his wishes to the two Larkinson mech designers.

"Professor Benedict is a good friend and a good mech designer, but as good as he is in designing high-performing mechs, he is not as good in adding that special spark that you Larkinsons are used to putting in all of your mech designs."

The gruff man's voice clearly betrayed his envy and admiration towards the myriad of special features that defined the Larkinson expert mechs.

Although Ves was proud that his expert pilots managed to develop new tricks with their expert mechs that he had never envisioned, he did not let this success get over his head.

Other mech designers were no slouches. Those that designed expert mechs themselves were all capable of adding their own special touches to their works.

The main reason why the Larkinson expert mechs stood out so much was because he and his clan were willing to invest large amounts of money and resources into their design and fabrication.

Many other mech designers who were tasked with doing the same often had to abide by strict budget, time and manpower constraints. It was rare for them to gain all of the conditions necessary to turn an expert mech design project into their passion projects.

The only instances where mech designers could go loose was when they designed machines for more distinguished pilots.

High-tier expert mechs such as the Gatecrasher showed that Masters were capable of designing far more powerful expert mechs if they were working under the right circumstances!

Of course, Patriarch Reginald wasn't content with obtaining a machine of that caliber anymore. He wanted an expert mech that was stronger than any of the high-tier expert mechs that he had the pleasure of coming into contact with. The possibilities demonstrated by the Larkinsons only fueled his desire even more.

His future and the future of the Cross Clan was on the line!

"As we have promised, we shall put our best effort into designing our strongest expert mech to date." Gloriana eagerly responded to Patriarch Reginald's renewed urgency. "That said, our work is limited by the materials that we have access to. The quality and properties of the materials determine the upper limit of a mech. We cannot build a machine that is strong enough to challenge alien warships by itself if it is made out of sticks and stone."

Ves wasn't so sure about that claim. There were all kinds of wondrous materials available in the cosmos. He could think of several ways to design a mech that was primarily made out of exotic woods and stone, though admittedly they wouldn't be as good due to his lack of mastery in these materials.

Patriarch Reginald unexpectedly smirked. "About that, I may be able to present you with hopeful news. Ever since I passed on the word to Professor Benedict, he has been using his own network to find any opportunity for us to acquire Galenta Bone."

"What?!"

Ves was shocked at this news!

He and his Larkinson Clan had been trying to acquire a Galenta Bone for ages without any result.

In contrast, Professor Benedict only spent an hour or so before he was able to get a lead on Galenta Bone. The disparity was enormous!

Though a part of Ves was jealous that a Senior like Professor Benedict was able to open up a lot more doors than him, he was largely happy with this development.

Galenta Bone was the only prime material that he knew for certain was available in the Red Ocean!

"Please tell us more." Ves quickly said as he tried to suppress his eagerness as much as possible. "Who is selling it and what is the price?"

There was no way that Galenta Bone could be obtained so easily. It was a precious trophy and possessed several desirable properties that turned it into a real treasure. Ves expected to hear a difficult answer and he was not disappointed in this regard.

"The party that is willing to offer a whole Galenta Bone to our alliance is a charitable organization called the Golgotha Foundation." The Cross Patriarch revealed.

"The… Golgotha Foundation…?"

Both Ves and Gloriana looked at each other. Neither of them had ever heard of this strangely-named foundation.

This shouldn't be a surprise, actually. Human civilization was enormous and the amount of groups that had entered the Red Ocean in the past few years was immense!

"What is the Golgotha Foundation?" Ves asked. "Is it based in Davute? Who are its backers?"

Reginald raised his hands. "Calm down, boy. I will answer your questions one by one. From what I've learned, the Golgotha Foundation has set up a branch in Davute, but its headquarters is located in a different region. The truth is that the foundation and its owners are first-raters."

"..."

Both Ves and Gloriana fell silent as they took in this news.

It was to be expected. Galenta Bone was classified as a first-class material due to its excellent properties. Alpha galenta whales were also highly formidable astral beasts that could not be felled by ordinary pioneering fleets.

Only first-raters had the means and the motivation to hunt these creatures down for sport. The prestige in completing such a hunt would definitely enhance anyone's reputation.

Ves slowly frowned.

The trouble with first-raters was that they were much more powerful and wealthy than anyone else. They looked down on second-raters as they treated anyone below their level as subhuman space peasants.

It was incredibly difficult to get along with these snobby types!

"From what I know about these charitable foundations, they all function as vehicles that allow their owners to spread their influence." Ves stated. "They are never purely about doing good. There are always greater motives behind them, whether they are political, economical or cultural."

"You are right to be vigilant about these foundations, but that does not change the fact that the Golgotha Foundation is the only organization that has shown a willingness to trade their Galenta Bone to us." Reginald replied.

That made Ves feel even less comfortable about this situation.

"Who… owns the Golgotha Foundation?"

The Cross Patriarch let out a deep breath. "Professor Benedict has told me that the Golgotha Foundation is an arm of the Impresario Principality."

"Impresario… Principality?"

Gloriana's eyes instantly widened. Ves followed suit a few seconds later.

The only organizations that had a habit of putting the word 'principality' in their names were the umbrella groups of Rubarthan princes!

"Which prince?!" Gloriana almost shrieked.

"Prince Casevir, otherwise known as the Impresario Prince." Reginald answered. "He is the 5733rd Prince of the Rubarthan Imperial Household."

"Oh."

Ves grew a bit more relaxed after figuring out how many older brothers and sisters possessed.

The reason for that was simple. The thousands of direct offspring of the man who reigned over the New Rubarth Empire all set up their own fiefs after they had reached maturity.

The earliest sons and daughters of the Star Emperor received the privilege of ruling over actual territories or arms of the immense Rubarthan states.

However, these cushy dominions soon ran out as the highly virile emperor kept making one heir after another.

The fiefs turned virtual as the later princes were left to start from scratch. The further down the line of succession, the more the princes had to scramble to build up their own private networks and organizations!

It was for this reason that most humans learned how highly they should treat a Rubarthan prince.

The first hundred or so princes and princesses were widely regarded as the contenders to the throne. Their high ranks, their powerful fiefs and the many years they spent in building up their support networks granted them real power 

The next thousand imperial offspring were seen as dark horses more or less. Their fiefs were less wealthy and powerful so they could not attract the same amount of support as their oldest imperial siblings.

Still, the throne contenders still competed for the support for the dark horses because the latter could still offer a lot of help in case the succession battle of the millennium finally broke out in the old galaxy!

The offspring younger than these groups were much less influential in comparison. They only received nominal fiefs when they grew up and did not have any way to compete against their older and more entrenched siblings.

They were pretty much free to do what they wanted as they possessed no particular obligations.

Many became business tycoons.

Others dedicated their lives to research.

Plenty of princes became mech pilots.

Others turned into good-for-nothings that spent most of their time on parties and social events.

Nonetheless, even if these younger imperial descendants were trivial existences in the New Rubarth Empire, their identities could still crush any second-class organization!

Getting involved with any Rubarthan prince was dangerous business. If not for the promise of obtaining Galenta Bone, Ves wouldn't even want to get close to this highborn orbit!

"What kind of person is Prince Casevir?" Ves cautiously asked.

"We are still figuring that out, Ves. On the surface, His Highness is an imperial who has strongly distanced himself from the power games in Rubarth. He has dedicated much of his life to enjoying, mastering and promoting the arts. This is why he became known as the Impresario Prince. He has a habit of splurging a lot of money on millions of artists, craftsmen, artisans, storytellers, media producers, musicians and so on. He even makes a lot of different artworks himself."

Ves looked up the Impresario Prince on the galactic net through his implant while Patriarch Reginald explained.

The 5733rd was indeed an artist and an entertainment aficionado. He had sponsored and supported so many different artistic and media initiatives that his influence in the galactic art sector and entertainment industry were not negligible!

"One of the more notable details about Prince Casevir is that his current preoccupation is producing and directing different drama shows." Reginald continued. "He and his media companies have already released a bunch of successful drama shows, some of which have achieved popularity in many parts of human space. Their genres range from comedy, action, tragedy and mystery. His Highness personally took charge of each of these high-budget productions."

Ves didn't know what to think about this artistic prince.

On one hand, the Impresario Prince had managed to achieve a lot of success in his chosen fields.

On the other hand, spending all of his time and effort on furthering his standing in the art and entertainment sectors meant he amounted to nothing in the Rubarth Empire's power center!

Patriarch Reginald finally turned his explanation back to the organization at hand.

"The Golgotha Foundation is one of Prince Casevir's many channels to support the arts. When Professor Benedict inadvertently got in touch with the charitable organization, the spokesperson showed interest in our alliance and more specifically you." He pointed at Ves.

"Me?" Ves looked puzzled.

"Golgotha has refrained from telling us the price we need to pay in order to obtain the Galenta Bone that we need. The only way we can learn the details is if we return to Davute and visit the foundation's in person."

"Figures. Well, that will probably take a month, maybe two. I do not plan to leave the Garimel System until we have filled our cargo holds with valuable ore."

The expeditionary fleet had yet to complete its exploration of the Garimel System. Ves strongly suspected that it had more to offer than what was apparent on the surface!

He and Patriarch Reginald continued to discuss this strange offer. They agreed to gather more intelligence about the Golgotha Foundation and the prince it was acting under before they made any moves.

In the meantime, they would continue their search for other ways to obtain Galenta Bone. As far as Ves was concerned, just a single bone wasn't enough for his ambitions!